A Study of Teaching Reading Skills to the Young Child Using Microcomputer Assisted Instruction

Abstract

The major purpose of this study was to determine if the five-year-old child could be taught reading skills through the computer. Fourteen children attending a preschool for low income families received specific reading skills instruction exclusively on the microcomputer. The curriculum used at the preschool was designed to eliminate any drill and practice on isolated reading skills. The study was a pretest/posttest single group design. All subjects were administered the Metropolitan Readiness Test and the results were analyzed using the one-way analysis of variance ( p < .01). A secondary purpose was to determine if the children could learn basic computer literacy skills without direct instruction and drill. Through an analysis of the observation notes it was determined that the computer literacy skills were learned by the children while involved in the academic skills instructional program.